The victims were trapped on the second floor of the house, the electric shutters could not be opened due to the power cut due to the flames. Only the father of the family survived.
A whole village in shock. Seven children aged 2 to 14 and their mother died in the fire which ravaged their house in Charly-sur-Marne (Aisne), on the night of Sunday February 5 to Monday February 6. Only the father of the family survived. The tragedy that affected the Champagne commune is the deadliest involving children since a fire in 2013 in the same department. Here is what we know about this tragedy.
The fire was allegedly started by a clothes dryer
The fire took place in the middle of the night in the three-storey house. Two adults and seven children resided inside. The father then “perceived a burning smell, then noticed thick smoke coming from the ground floor”according to the press release from the Soissons prosecutor. “It’s a priori a dryer that caught fire”said the magistrate.
The father tried to evacuate the dryer, without success, and asked his family to take shelter on the second floor, in the converted attic of the house, according to the account given by the prosecutor. But the fire continued to spread in the house and the flaming trap closed on the victims. The children and the mother could no longer leave the house, the electric shutters being blocked by the power cut, while the black smoke invaded the staircase.
The father, seriously burned, was extracted from the house by a neighbor, a volunteer firefighter, before the arrival of his colleagues. “I saw a lot of people breaking the windows and the door of this house, to try to get the people who were still inside out. It was big flames coming out of the front door and going up upstairstestified a neighbor. The father was screaming that there were his children inside. He tried to go back into the house, but a gentleman who was there, probably an undercover firefighter, stopped him before the firefighters arrived.
Called at 12:49 a.m. according to the prefecture, the firefighters deployed significant resources, with 80 firefighters and two large ladders, but were unable to save the rest of the family, struggling to intervene due to the configuration of the premises. Firefighters finally managed to extinguish the blaze early in the morning. Two tractors were mobilized to evacuate the rubble.
Victims died from toxic fumes
The toll of this fire is very heavy. The mother, a 40-year-old woman, died, along with her seven children, two boys aged 2 and 4 and five girls aged 3, 7, 10, 13 and 14, the fire department said. Aisne at France Televisions. The four eldest were from a first union of the mother. The family, originally from the North, moved into this house four years ago.
All the victims died of suffocation from the smoke from the fire. “The bodies were not charred”the prosecutor said. The remains were then transferred to the medico-legal institute of Saint-Quentin for examinations. These confirm “the absence of traces of damage not resulting from the fire” and establish “that the eight people were alive before inhaling the toxic fumes, the levels of which were found to be extremely lethal”according to a press release from the prosecution consulted by France 3 Hauts-de-France.
The prosecution does not plan to carry out an autopsy. As to father family, a 40-year-old agricultural worker, he is hospitalized for second degree burns and could be heard Monday at the beginning of the afternoon. Despite his injuries, his life is not in danger.
An investigation is open
An investigation has been opened to determine the origin of this deadly fire. It is led by the Château-Thierry research brigade. The investigation should focus in particular on the clothes dryer, “completely charred”which appears to have started the fire, said the prosecutor. “The house was completely up to standard”testified Sylvie Corré, the wife of the owner of the house, to AFP. “At this stage, there are no elements linking the fire to a problem of insalubrity”confirms the prosecutor.
The village is in mourning
At midday on Monday, residents had gathered, tears in their eyes, in front of the house, blackened facade and charred shutters, in a narrow street in the center of the town. “We were there, in the same street. All night, we saw the horror”, Sylvie Corré testified again. Emotion also in front of the elementary school where some of the young victims were educated. The mistress “told us to take advantage of our friends”testifies a 10-year-old boy, friend of one of the deceased girls.
School’s director “had tears in his eyes” he too when the children arrive, testifies another mother who prefers to remain anonymous. “Listening cells have been set up to welcome the words of children and teachers”said Catherine Albaric-Delpech, Academic Director.
A white march project has also been mentioned, but has not yet been confirmed, specifies France 3 Hauts-de-France, pending in particular the agreement of the families of the victims.